The Advantage of a Mobile Enterprise Applications Platform

“SAP is enabling its NetWeaver Mobile platform as the key back-end gateway that connects with its own business application suite and provides a key Integration point for partners to push down to the mobile device”
-Source: IDC Insight, 10/2009

The Advantages of a Mobile Platform

Many organizations rely on SAP technology and applications to manage their critical business processes, such as sales force automation, supply chain management, Direct Store Delivery (DSD), and warehouse management. In recent years the majority of these applications have been designed for use on a desktop computer and/or personal laptop. But organizations are now deploying mobile devices and providing their employees with access to corporate email and calendaring and applications. This, together with recent advancements in wireless network bandwidth, creates a great opportunity to extend these existing SAP applications and processes to variety of mobile devices.

Maximize Your SAP Applications

­In order to ensure successful mobilization of your SAP applications, there are a number of issues that must be addressed, including:

• The physical extension of the SAP screens to mobile devices
• Selection of the mobile enterprise applications platform
• Selection of mobile devices, which includes choosing screen size and input method (stylus, keyboard, touchscreen, etc.)
• Addressing issues associated with the real-time wireless connection
• Management of the mobile infrastructure, network, applications, and services

Maximize Your SAP Investment

When you are extending mobility to SAP applications, a common enterprise platform for mobile applications and devices is critical.

Different operating systems and different versions of the same operating system running on your mobile devices can present significant business challenges and technical issues for the SAP application, which may require modification.

The Spring Wireless Mobile Enterprise Applications Platform provides a unique opportunity to mobilize SAP applications quickly and securely with a low cost to develop, configure, and deploy.

Solution Features and Benefits

The Advantages of a Mobile Platform

At Spring Wireless, we believe in a complete applications approach. Our mobile enterprise applications and industry-specific solutions offer a single platform that provides a common infrastructure for organizations that are looking to empower their mobile employees with wireless access to corporate data and applications, ensuring their SAP applications will work on any devices they deploy. The Spring Wireless solution consists of mSeries™ mobile applications, feature-rich and customizable applications, integration interfaces and connectors, seamless wireless connectivity, and management and development tools. 

The following diagram illustrates Spring Wireless Solution architecture and components:

This single common platform offers organizations a number of business benefits:

• Providing remote and real-time access to customer information including orders, shipments, and sales opportunities
• Delivering BI reports and analytics to mobile executives for real-time viewing and action-taking
• Reducing IT staff support time and related costs
• Enabling remote access to workflow and approvals from back office systems, such as time and payment management, inventory or purchase order approvals, and invoicing.

Loreal Automates Its Field Processes

Business Situation

The L'Oreal cosmetics and beauty company has a global presence in 130 countries and markets through multiple distribution channels. L'Oreal's objectives for automating its field process included standardizing processes by defining visit flows and business rules for retail execution and enhancing team productivity by reducing time spent on preparing visits and closing sales orders. 

Solution Overview

Spring Wireless has implemented its field sales mobile solution for 1,200 mobile users and 300 distributors, integrating with L'Oreal's SAP solution and providing a single platform with local requirements for each product division and user profile. Retail visit planning and preparation are conducted using mobile devices, and sales managers can dynamically allocate promotion budgets. The mobile technology also allows field representatives to check on stock visibility and suggest substitute products.

Benefits

Spring Wireless solution has provided L'Oreal with:

• Improved order efficiency
• Increase of 20% in field team productivity
• Increase of 15% in average sales tickets
• In-stock level information in orders has resulted in an 80% reduction in items that were at critical stock levels.
• Online visibility of sales results based on consistent, reliable data, helps managers and executives apply results analysis to strategic decisions.

About spring wireless

Spring Wireless works with some of the largest consumer goods companies to help improve key field sales and marketing business processes such as retail execution optimization, trade promotion management, DSD, merchandising, and more.

Founded in 2001, Spring Wireless serves more than 450 blue chip clients, including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Unilever, Nestlé, Cadbury Adams and more.